“The extradition process is underway in Panama,” Carole Saindon said in an email.

Panamanian authorities have already received a request to return Sponagle to Canada, she said.

The Truro native was arrested last month at a shopping mall in Panama City by Interpol officers, according to online news reports in that country.

He was charged in June 2011 in Kentville provincial court with three counts of fraud over $5,000 and one count of theft over $5,000.

The RCMP laid charges after an investigation found that 179 investors with Jabez Financial Services Inc. were allegedly defrauded of more than $4 million.

Sponagle was general manager and principal of Jabez, a company registered in Panama in 2005 but not authorized to trade securities in Nova Scotia.

A spokesman for the RCMP’s financial crime unit in Nova Scotia said police hope Sponagle will be returned to Nova Scotia as soon as possible to answer to the charges.

But Sgt. Tom Murdock couldn’t say how long that might take. “It’s different in every jurisdiction so I can’t comment on it,” he said.

Sponagle is expected to remain in custody pending a ruling on the extradition request, Murdock said.

Sponagle fled to Panama in 2006 after being summoned by the Nova Scotia Securities Commission and authorities have been trying to locate him since then.

Jabez was dissolved in 2007 and about $1.5 million in assets were recovered from its Curacao bank account.

The RCMP and the province asked the federal Justice Department to begin extradition proceedings after the charges were laid two years ago.

A provincial court judge in Windsor issued a warrant for Sponagle’s arrest in August 2011.

The Public Prosecution Service was notified in February 2012 that Ottawa had made the extradition request to Panama, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Most Jabez investors are in Nova Scotia, including members of the Rock Church in Lower Sackville. Not all investors believe they were bilked, despite their losses, RCMP and securities regulators have said.

The securities commission alleged that Jabez investors were promised returns of up to 214 per cent. Instead, the money went into the Curacao account controlled by Sponagle.

The commission levied $500,000 fines for securities fraud against Sponagle and colleague Trevor Wayne Hill, the largest fines available at the time. They were also permanently banned from trading in investments in this province.

Securities laws were changed last year to allow larger penalties in illegal stock scams.

Another Rock Church parishioner, Larry Beaton, was handed a $25,000 penalty after reaching a settlement agreement with the commission.

The criminal charges against Sponagle were laid in Kentville because Jabez had an office in the Windsor area.